Simba
Simba is the main protagonist of the 1994 disney film The Lion King and the tritagonist of the rest of the franchise. The Lion King Cub Simba as a cub, Simba is first seen at his birth ceremony. Rafiki, the baboon anoints him and presents him to the gathered animals below. Then, Simba is seen waking his father, King Mufasa, so Mufasa can teach him about being king. Then, Mufasa's majordomo, A hornbill named Zazu brings the morning report.Simba, bored, tries to practice pouncing. After some instruction from his father, Simba succeeds in pinning down Zazu. As Zazu is on his back, a gopher pops up and tells Zazu and Mufasa there are dangerous hyenas in the Pridelands. Mufasa leaves to deal with the threat, forbidding Simba to come with him. Disappointed, Simba returns to Pride Rock to find his uncle Scar. He gleefully informs Scar that he's will one day be King of Pride Rock, irritating Scar, who unenthusiastically replies, "Yes, well, forgive me for not leaping for joy - bad back you know." and his uncle eventually asks him whether his brother showed him what lies beyond the northern border; Simba admits that he didn't, and Scar acts relieved, saying only the bravest of lions go there. Objecting, Simba says he's brave and demands to know what's there. Accidentally on purpose, Scar lets slip that "an elephant graveyard is no place for a young prince," aware that Simba's curiosity will lead him there. Simba is excited at the prospect of an adventure, but promises his uncle that he won't visit the dreadful place. Instead, Simba goes to his best friend Nala being bathed by her mother, Sarafina, opposite his own mother,Sarabi; Simba tries to get Nala to accompany him somewhere, without giving away the location of their adventure. When asked where they are headed, he lies, "around the waterhole." Sarabi sends Zazu to accompany them, much to their dismay. On the way to the waterhole, Zazu makes a nostalgic comment on how the two are "betrothed, intended, affianced," meaning they are set to be mates and rule the Pridelands, but since they are just children, they find it too weird. The duo ditch Zazu by crushing him with a pile of animals set to Simba singing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King." The cubs tumble into the elephant graveyard, and after a quick exploration, Zazu catches up with the them before Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed show up. Simba tries to be brave in front of the hyenas, but realizing the danger, the cubs make a frantic effort to escape while Zazu alerts Mufasa, appearing to save Simba and Nala. Going back to Pride Rock, Mufasa tells Simba he's very disappointed in him and angry that he disobeyed him; Simba says he was trying to be brave like his father, Mufasa explains that even kings get scared, and he was scared because he almost lost Simba, then Simba jokes that the hyenes were even more scared. After playing together under the sky, Mufasa tells his son something that he once learned from his father, about the "Great Kings of the Past" looking down from the stars, and whenever he feels alone, the stars will always be there to guide him—and so will he. The next day, Scar, who had been plotting to kill his brother and nephew to become king, takes Simba with him to a large gorge, saying his father has a "surprise" for him. Simba begs his uncle to tell him what it is, but Scar walks away after teasing him about practicing his "little roar." Unknown to Simba, Scar signaled the hyenas to start a wildebeest stampede to chase the frightened herd down to the gorge below. While the cub practices his roar a little louder than usual, the wildebeest charge down the cliff face in the direction of Simba. Terrified, Simba runs for his life. Meanwhile, Scar runs to Mufasa panting Simba is in the stampede down in the gorge. Immediately, Mufasa runs to save his son, who desperately manages to jump and cling on to a branch while the wildebeest thunder below him. Just as his father arrives, a wildebeest collides with the branch and breaks it; Mufasa fights through the stampede to catch his son, then gets Simba to safety. Pulled back ito the crowd, the alpha lion fights and struggles and throws himself on to the ledge, clinging on for dear life. Seeing this, Simba runs to the top of the cliff. As he reaches the top, all he sees is his father plummet into the stampede below, not knowing he was just thrown by Scar. He cries out and races down to the bottom of the gorge to find his father's body under the branch he was clinging to. Hoping that his father isn't dead, he tries to revive him. Knowing he's not waking up, he calls for help, but starts to cry and crawls under his father's fore paw. Scar approaches and convinces him that he is responsible for the death of his father, since he roared and caused the stampede, even though Scar really caused it. When asked what his mother would think, Simba doesn't know what to do, so Scar tells him to run away and never return. Scampering away, Scar sends Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed once again to kill Simba. Panicked, scared, and now chased by the hyenas, he runs on some rocks up the gorge and comes out at the top of a steep cliff. With a patch of sharp thorns below, Simba has no choice but to jump down the cliff to escape the predators. He tumbles down and forces himself through, but the hyenas don't follow, thinking Simba is as good as dead out in the barren desert anyway. Tired and dehydrated, Simba wanders into the desert; in the burning heat, he eventually faints. Waiting for him to die, vultures circle overhead, but a meerkat named Timon and a warthog named Pumbaa scare away the vultures and save the unconscious cub. They revive him and ask him if he's okay. He shakily replies, then starts to wander off; the two ask what he did, but Simba doesn't want to talk about it. Timon and Pumbaa take the cub into a jungle to teach him to forget the past and live by "Hakuna Matata," meaning "no worries." During the song "Hakuna Matata," Timon and Pumbaa have Simba eat bugs, explore his new home, and live without worry. The three walk across a log, which represents time elapse of a few years, during which Simba goes from a cub to a teenager to an adult. Adult Simba Growing up in the jungle, Simba learns to be carefree and forget all about his responsibilities. Although happy in the jungle, he feels homesick when stargazing with his friends, recalling what his father told him years ago when they looked up at the stars together. He gets more upset when Timon's comments mock the Great Kings of the Past. Simba leaves to flop down on the rock, wishing his father was still alive. A few days later, Simba hears Timon and Pumbaa crying for help in the jungle and immediately rushes to their rescue, finding himself face-to-face with a hungry lioness. After wrestling with the lioness, she flips Simba onto his back, a move he recognizes from Nala. He asks her if she's Nala, and she answers, "Who are you?" and Simba replys, "Simba!" As they rejoice, Simba introduced Nala to his new friends and Nala tells Simba he's the rightful King. Simba rejects his responsibility and refuses to go back, still thinking's he's guilty of killing his father; still, he comforts Nala as she struggles with the reality of him being alive after all those years. Enjoying a peaceful sunset evening together, playing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," the two lions realize their childhood friendship has now blossomed into a romantic relationship. However that evening, Nala tries to explain to Simba the fate of the Pridelands under Scar's reign and persuade him to go back, but he refuses, which leads to an argument. Simba marches away from Nala and, in a grassy field, yells to the sky, "You said you would always be there for me! But you're not... and it's because of me. It's my fault." After this, Simba notices Rafiki singing in a tree. Trying to get away from him, Simba goes to lie down away from the mandrill; Rafiki, the same one from Simba's birth ceremony years ago, refuses to leave him alone, so Simba asks who he is. Simba doesn't know anymore, and after Rafiki chants in his ear, he says that Simba is Mufasa's boy. He chases the wise baboon and asks if he knew his father, but Rafiki says he knows his father, and explains to Simba that Mufasa lives inside of him, showing him his reflection. Simba's reflection becomes the face of Mufasa; at this, Mufasa's spirit appears in the sky, which Simba recognizes, but Mufasa accuses his son of forgetting him. His father says he has forgotten his father and his own place in the Circle of Life. He reminds Simba that he is his son and the one true King, before telling him to "remember." Simba chases his father's disappearing form in the sky; Rafiki approaches Simba again and, through whacking him on the head with his stick, teaches him the lesson that even though things are in the past, they can still hurt, but you should learn form them. This time, Simba dodges Rafiki's whack and leaves to take back his place as king of the Pridelands. He is shocked at the dry, barren condition the once green and fertile land is in. As Simba trudges through the Pridelands, Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa catch up to help him fight Scar. While Timon and Pumbaa divert the hyenas, Nala goes to rally Sarabi and the other lionesses and Simba searches for Scar. Hidden as his anger mounts by watching Scar strike his mother, Simba runs out of hiding down to her side. Pressuming him as Mufasa at first, Sarabi eventually realizes it is her son, who turns on his uncle. Trapped, Scar resorts to accusing Simba of killing Mufasa, and Simba doesn't deny it. With Nala and the other lionesses watching, Scar corners Simba on the edge of Pride Rock's promontory; Simba slips but manages to cling on. Certain he has won, Scar whispers in his ear that he killed Mufasa. Filled with anger, Simba jumps off the edge to pins Scar to the ground and forces him to confess out loud which leads to a tremendous battle. While Nala, the other lionesses, Timon, and Pumbaa wipe out the hyenas, Simba chases his uncle to the summit of Pride Rock, where Scar pleads for mercy by blaming the hyenas, unaware that they turn away in disgust and anger. Simba does not kill Scar, but spares him by repeating the words his uncle told him all those years ago: "Run. Run away, Scar; and never return." Scar begins to slip away, but suddenly turns around and throws burning embers into Simba's eyes. The two lions fight bitterly, until Scar knocks Simba to the ground, when finally, Simba uses Nala's trick and flips Scar over the edge. Simba looks down and watches as the hyenas chow down on his uncle. After the battle, Simba greets his mother, Zazu, Timon, Pumbaa, Nala, and the rest of the pride before Rafiki tells him that "It is time." Simba then climbs up Pride Rock and, after hearing his father's voice say "remember," roars out over his kingdom while rain falls over the ended battle. Seasons later, the Pridelands have grown back green, and all the happy animals return to Pride Rock once again to welcome the birth of a new cub. Simba and Nala, along with Timon and Pumbaa, proudly look on as Rafiki holds their cub up for all the kingdom to see. The Lion King II: Simba's Pride In the second film, he is shown to have had a daughter named Kiara. In this film, he is a secondary character. He is also very uptight and concerned about Kiara's safety. The Lion King 1 1/2 Simba is the tritagonist. During Timon and Pumbaa's first try at a new home, they saw Simba's birth ceremony. Although they had no interest in it, they came to witness the event anyways. The two later found a small cave in the Pridelands, which they lived in for a month or two until Simba and Nala singing "I Just Can't Wait to be King" drove them out. Although not seen, we can hear Simba say "I'm okay" after the animal pyramid falls down. Later, after Mufasa is murdered by his brother Scar and Simba runs away from the Pridelands, he wanders around the desert feeling guilty thinking he killed his father. Simba collapses of fatigue and exhaustion, lying under the sun with buzzards circling overhead. The cub is found by Timon and Pumbaa, who carry him to shade and water and eventually let him live in the jungle with them. Growing up without worries, Simba soon proves to be a difficult cub to handle and Timon and Pumbaa find it hard to be adoptive parents. Living carefree in the jungle forest, Simba gets into all kinds of mischief that his parents would have never allowed: jumping down from dangerously tall trees, swimming down steep and deadly waterfalls backwards, and spinning Timon around like a play toy. He also keeps Timon up all night having to go to the bathroom, wanting a drink of water, and needing the bathroom again. One night, Simba was awakened by a nightmare, probably involving his father's death. A few months pass and Simba is now a teenage lion, who seems to beat Timon and Pumbaa at all kinds of alliterative bug eating contests, including the longest bug belch, slug swallowing, cricket crunching, grub gulping, maggot munching, as well as the snail slurping contest shown in the film. He has grown a small mane on his head and looks even more hot-headed than as a cub. Months or maybe a year later, Simba has now grown to an adult lion who enjoys his life with Timon and Pumbaa in the jungle. Simba had an interesting conversation with Pumbaa about dung beetles before Nala appears and chases Pumbaa, causing Simba to attack her; he later realizes it's his old childhood friend. In the "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" sequence, we see that Simba takes Nala on a romantic evening in the jungle, unknowingly hurting Timon while the meerkat attempts to split the two lovers up. After the familiar scenes of Simba arguing with Nala about wheter or not he should return to the Pridelands to be the Lion King, Simba runs off and sees his father's ghost, although the timing is a lot shorter after the argument, happening almost instantly after he runs off. This could be counted as a mistake, although it was probably sped up for the convenience of the filmmakers, who wanted to move the film on quicker. There are also some different angles of Simba going after Scar, including a shot of him chasing Scar up to the top of Pride Rock and a different angle of Simba slipping off the cliff when Scar corners him. Simba's leaping up and forcing the truth out of Scar about Mufasa's death is also seen at a new angle. Once the violence is over, Simba thanks Timon and Pumbaa for their help against the hyenas before he climbs Pride Rock, roaring for all of the Pridelands to know that they have won. At the end of the film, Simba is laying down on the water with Pumbaa, Timon and Ma. The Lion King on Broadway Following the success of The Lion King, Julie Taymor created the musical, The Lion King. In this production, we have an insight into events that were not explored in the original film, as the main character, Simba, young and old, is in nearly all the musical numbers. But in the Broadway production, we see a slightly extended role, which includes scenes like Timon being trapped above a lake full of crocodiles, which was Simba's fault; as the situation reminded him of the day his father was killed by his uncle Scar, and sings an additional song, "Endless Night." Jason Raize plays Adult Simba while Scott Irby-Ranniar plays young Simba in the original Broadway cast of The Lion King. Kingdom hearts 2 In Kingdom Hearts II, when the main protagonists (Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy) explore the jungle in the Pride Lands world, Simba almost attacks them, not recognizing them as they were turned into animals due to Sora's enchanted clothes. Initially, Simba refuses to go back to the Pridelands, stating he was "not who he used to be." His father, Mufasa, comes to him and tells him to go back; afterwards, he accompanies Sora, Donald, and Goofy to Pride Rock for a climactic battle with both the hyenas Shenzi, Banzai and Ed and Scar, who had been turned into a Heartless because of his anger and jealousy. Sora left after the successful coronation of Simba. When Sora returned, Simba had been driven into doubt by rumors of Scar's ghost. He later gained confidence and stood up to Scar's ghost, which was a manifestation of Simba's uncertainty and fearless. Simba has a move with Sora that causes huge rocks to appear and strike opponents, after which he slashes foes - ending, finally, with his summon attack from the first game, Proud Roar. Cam Clarke voices Simba in the above two appearances, with an archival recording of Jonathan Taylor Thomas used for Young Simba in a flashback sequence in Kingdom Hearts II. Trivia *According to the concept sketches, Simba's fur color was originally beige, but was changed to gold to make him look more like Mufasa. *Simba is an appropriate name for this character, since the word "Simba" means "lion" in Swahili, considering the fact that Simba is a lion. Category: heroes Category: Lions Category: Fictional cats Category: Males Category:Fathers Category:In love cats